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New Republican senator Konni Burton, taking over the Fort Worth seat held by Wendy Davis before she ran for governor, is making a fashion statement on the first day of the legislative session.

There’s a new sheriff in town, and this one wears black boots – not red Mizuno running shoes. And this one is adamantly anti-abortion.

Davis shot to fame two years ago by donning those shoes and staging a 13-hour filibuster to (temporarily) defeat a bill with sweeping new abortion restrictions. For that marathon filibuster, she wore those Mizunos. And both the filibuster and footwear went viral on social media under the hashtag “Stand with Wendy.”

Burton showed off the different footwear and different attitude on Tuesday. Her black boots are engraved with “Stand for Life.”

UPDATE 12:22 pm: Jenn Brown and Jeremy Bird, who head Battleground Texas, put out a lengthy memo to say they knew the process of rebuilding the Texas Democratic Party would take time. From the memo:

“While the losses this election were tough, we’re proud of what Team Wendy, Battleground Texas, and our partners across the state accomplished this year. Together, we showed that grassroots organizing can bring new voices into the democratic process. And together, we built the largest-ever grassroots program in Texas, uniting nearly 34,000 volunteers who reached out to voters on the phones and at the doors 7.5 million times. Our investments this year – in a cutting-edge digital program, a more effective data infrastructure, and a lasting grassroots organization – will lay the foundation for Democratic victories in the future.

Political strategist David Carney acknowledged how micro-targeting techniques and data-mining made it pretty “scary” about how much they knew about voters.

The campaign’s target was to win 55 percent of the vote. They did it by targeting 2.5 million voters that were either sure bets – based on their GOP voting history – or were considered persuadable.

They knew the TV shows they’re likely voters watched in greatest numbers – ESPN college football, College Football Scoreboard and the Discovery Channel – and gathered information on their socio-economic status, education, income, wealth and political activism. They used computer cookies and 1,000 phone calls a night to ask voters who they might support and why.

Among the key things it told them was that Abbott’s ad featuring his Hispanic mother-in-law worked extremely well, especially among Latino voters. The campaign also devoted $3 million in Spanish-language advertising.

They also could track rival Democrat Wendy Davis’ ad-buys and how they were affecting likely voters.

Davis’ controversial ad – featuring an empty wheelchair that interposed Abbott’s own $10 million accident settlement against his record of fighting lawsuits – did not do well, Abbott operatives said.

Next to Abbott’s positive mother-in-law ad, Davis’ wheelchair spot, “was our second best advertisement,” said Chris Wilson, who tracked media for the Abbott campaign.

Wilson said the ad moved some voters towards Abbott and had a negative effect on her campaign.

The Abbott campaign staff also said their tracking of newly registered voters and turnout showed that the Davis campaign and Battleground Texas did not move the needle in terms of getting new Democrats to the polls.

“There’s no reality to what they said they were doing and what happened,” Carney said. “No empirical evidence that shows they did anything.”

He said that while voter registration did go up, it followed historical trends, did not spike after Democratic voter drives and did not keep pace with the state’s growing population.

Carney said Abbott’s lopsided victory – 59 percent to her 39 percent – does not mean Democrats could not field a candidate who could be competitive in four years.

He said the Democratic problem is that they are touting policies that don’t resonate with Texas voters.

With few precincts left, Republican Konni Burton has the state Senate District 10 race in hand. Democrat Libby Willis was trailing by nearly 13,000 votes.

This will give the district back to the Republicans for the first time since Wendy Davis won it in 2008 from Kim Brimer.
The 53 percent to 45 percent spread was much larger than the last two elections when this appeared more like a swing district. Davis won both by less than 3 percentage points.
Still this was by far the closest state Senate race in Texas. The next closest race was Houston Democrat John Whitmire’s re-election race. He was leading his challenger by roughly 20 percentage points.

Update at 9:53 p.m.

Republican Konni Burton, a former vice president of the NE Tarrant Tea Party, has extended her lead over Democrat Libby Willis. The seat has been held by Democrat Wendy Davis since 2008 but now appears to be heading back to the Republican column.

With all but a few dozen precinct reporting, Burton held a 52 percent to 45 percent lead. That was close the margin she held with only early voting ballots counted.

Update at 9:38 p.m.

With more than half the precinct’s reporting, Republican Konni Burton is holding on to her lead over Democrat Libby Willis.

Willis made some progress when the first batch of precincts were released. That’s stalled as the latest votes were tallied with Willis trailing by nearly 6,800 votes.

Update at 8:56 p.m.

Democrat Libby Willis is starting to move on Republican Konni Burton. But it’s going very slowly.

Burton still leads 51 percent to 47 percent. The Republican’s lead is about 1 percentage point smaller than it was after early voting.

Slightly more than 10 percent of the district’s 357 precincts have reported.

Update at 7:30 p.m. Burton has taken a solid lead in early voting, 52 percent to 46 percent. The Libertarian and Green Party candidates make up the rest. To put this in perspective, Davis and her GOP challenger Mark Shelton were almost dead even after early voting in 2012. Davis pulled ahead by winning nearly 55 percent of the Election Day ballots.

Original post A large majority of Texas political races tonight were decided in the March primary thanks to the drawing of safe Republican and Democratic districts. The rare exception is expected to be state Senate District 10, the seat previously held by Democratic gubernatorial candidate Wendy Davis. Republican Tea Party activist Konni Burton and Democrat Libby Willis are running high-dollar campaigns to win that seat. Combined, they’ve raised more than $4.14 million from Republican and Democratic donors hoping to sway the only swing district among the 31 Texas Senate seats. Davis won the seat in 2008 from longtime Republican incumbent Kim Brimer and held off a GOP challenger in 2012. In both elections, Davis won by less than 3 percentage points.

UPDATE 8:15 pm: It’s all over folks. AP has called the race and Greg Abbott is the next governor of Texas.

UPDATE 7:39 pm With almost 1.7 million early votes tallied, Abbott is leading Davis with 58 percent to her 41 percent.

INITIAL POST: Polls and expectations have Greg Abbott poised to become Texas’ next governor, replacing long-serving Rick Perry while continuing many of his policies.

Throughout the campaign, Abbott has brandished conservative credentials, promising low taxes and small government. He has played on President Obama’s deep unpopularity in Texas, painting Democrat Wendy Davis as a mere extension of the president.

Davis skyrocketed to national attention following a 13-hour filibuster last year on sweeping new abortion restrictions. Her campaign tapped support from tens of thousands of small donors and banked on strong support from women and Latinos.

Davis has urged voters to select new leadership that will represent ordinary Texans and fight for quality education, health care and opportunities. She has portrayed Abbott as an attorney general who represents business insiders.

Abbott also has promised to improve education in Texas and has emphasized investment in roads, border security and fighting federal government overreach.

Together, the candidates are expected to have spent $90 million seeking the office.

Wendy Davis was flanked by her father and her daughters during her 2012 victory speech in Fort Worth.

President Barack Obama participated in a tele-conference call this morning with thousands of Texas Democrats, joined by governor nominee Wendy Davis and lieutenant governor nominee Leticia Van de Putte.

The president urged participants to get out and vote, warning Democratic apathy would leave Republicans dominating statewide offices.

Republican Greg Abbott, whose campaign ads have tried to link the unpopular president directly to Davis, jumped on the connection.

“In the final hours of the election, President Obama is going all in for Sen. Davis, making a personal appeal to push their shared agenda of bigger government, more regulations, higher taxes and fewer jobs,” said Abbott spokesman Matt Hirsch.

The Abbott campaign has been running statewide TV ads for weeks that portray Obama as governor in the event Davis won the office. The two have not appeared together in public.

On the phone call, billed as a electronic town hall meeting, were also former Dallas Mayor Ron Kirk and Houston Sen. Rodney Ellis.

The phone call was a motivator for Democrats to get out and vote, said Davis spokesman Zac Petkanas.

“The goal in an election is to get more of your supporters out to the polls than the other guy’s,” said Petkanas. “That’s what this call was desigend to do and we trust it will.”

Serena Simmons Connelly, center, is a major Democratic donor, despite being the daughter of the late GOP uber donor Harold Simmons.

The late Dallas billionaire Harold Simmons may have been a Republican mega donor but his family is splitting its political bets this fall.

In checks written on the eve of the election, Simmons’ widow, Annette, gave Republican lieutenant governor hopeful Dan Patrick $25,000, while his daughter, Serena Simmons Connelly, gave Democrat Leticia Van de Putte $10,000. For the year, that brought Serena’s financial backing of Van de Putte to $17,500, according to Texas Ethics Commission records.

In this election cycle, Annette Simons has given Republican candidates $120,000, the commission’s records show. Half went to unsuccessful attorney general candidate Dan Branch of Dallas.

Since January 2013, Serena Connelly has given more than $358,000 to state Democratic causes, according to commission records. Of that, more than $120,000 went to gubernatorial nominee Wendy Davis and the Texas Victory Committee, the Davis campaign’s joint project with voter-organizing Battleground Texas; more than $90,000 to ActBlue, the Democratic internet fundraising tool; and $25,000 each to the Planned Parenthood Texas Votes PAC and the Texas Organizing Project.

Kelly Alexander

Annette Simmons, shown with her late husband Harold at a Dallas ball in 2013.

Her sister, Lisa Simmons, also has supported Democrats, though without as many zeroes on her checks.

Lisa Simmons, president of the Harold Simmons Foundation, has given Davis and Battleground Texas $4,000 since May. Serena Connelly is the foundation’s executive vice president.

The sometimes surprising “left turns” of the foundation and Simmons’ daughters were chronicled last year in this piece by the Center for Public Integrity. Among them was its donation of $600,000 to Planned Parenthood and its North Texas affiliate.

Serena Connelly and Lisa Simmons together control nearly 94 percent of Dallas-based Contran Corp., a closely held company with subsidiaries producing a chemical used in house paint and rayon clothing as well as manufacturing security products and recreational marine components, according to this February story by Bloomberg BusinessWeek.

Since Oct. 25, when candidates filed their last detailed reports on contributions and expenditures, Patrick has raised about $330,000 in late money, to Van de Putte’s $211,000. That’s not out of line with their overall financial effort. Though Patrick has outraised and outspent her, Van de Putte has kept it relatively close. And while Patrick aides complain she’s received major in-kind donations from Planned Parenthood, TOP and Battleground Texas, it was a major gift from one conservative PAC, $125,000 from Texans for Lawsuit Reform, that kept Patrick ahead in the “telegram” reports on last-minute contributions.

Greg Abbott campaigns with Chuck Norris, left, in Dallas at Sonny Bryan's on Inwood Road on the final day of the gubernatorial campaign.

Greg Abbott on Monday urged Republicans voters to avoid complacency and show up in the rain, if necessary, to help him become Texas’ next governor.

“We have two challenges over the next 24 hours. One challenge is going to be rain,” Abbott said. “Do not let that dampen your spirit. We need every last vote in this election.”

Abbott is favored to win Tuesday’s election for governor against Democrat Wendy Davis. He leads the state senator from Fort Worth in every poll. No Democrat has won a statewide election in Texas since 1994, and the last Democrat to be elected governor was Ann Richards in 1990.

Davis on Monday was campaigning in Austin, San Antonio and Houston.

Abbott, the attorney general of GOP nominee for governor, said the other challenge for Republicans was standing up to the Democrats’ vaunted voter turnout machine.

He said his rivals were trying to bring President Barack Obama’s agenda to Texas, and it was up to voters to stop them.

“Barack Obama’s campaign operatives have come here with one thing in mind, and that is to destroy the values and principles that have led Texas to be the best state in the United States of America,” Abbott said.

He added that he was proud of his campaign, and would be happy if he only won by one vote.

“We need to keep up and beat that machine,” he said. “We’ve gone 99 yards. We’re at the one-yard line. We have to cross the goal line together tomorrow.”

Abbott was joined at Sonny Bryan’s Smokehouse in Dallas by actor Chuck Norris, who said he was the best choice to lead Texas.

The attorney general joked that Norris was critical to his plan to secure Texas’ southern border.

“Today I am amending that vision with a two-word platform to insure we do a better job of securing that border,” Abbott said. “Those two words are Chuck Norris…No one crosses Chuck Norris.”

Abbott, who grew up in Duncanville, said he was having fun during the final stretch of the campaign.

“There’s no better way to finish the campaign than back where I grew up,” he said. “In quintessential Texas fashion, there’s no better way to end a campaign morning than in a barbecue restaurant.”

Former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton campaigns for Maryland Democratic gubernatorial candidate, Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown, during a rally Thursday at the University of Maryland.

Former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Thursday endorsed the Democratic women running for Texas’ top two offices, gubernatorial aspirant Wendy Davis and lieutenant governor candidate Leticia Van de Putte.

Clinton, who is weighing a bid for the Democrats’ presidential nomination in 2016, applauded Davis for running a “tough, strong campaign” against Republican Greg Abbott.

“That’s no surprise, because Wendy has shown us time and time again that she never backs down, whether she’s fighting for Texas school children or working to create an economy that works for all Texans,” Clinton is quoted as saying in a Davis campaign graphic.

Clinton said Van de Putte, who is locked in a tough race with fellow state Sen. Dan Patrick, R-Houston, advocates for society’s most vulnerable.

“Leticia Van de Putte always demonstrates the courage to speak up for those who do not have a voice,” Clinton is quoted as saying in a Van de Putte campaign graphic. “She has bold ideas and initiatives that honor veterans, respect women, and value education. She leads with a sense of family and community.”

In the last two days, Democrat Wendy Davis has pulled in more than $800,000 from large donors.

While Davis has large donors, the surge of big checks in the last week stands in contrast to a campaign that has raised close to $35 million mostly from tens of thousands of small contributions under $100.

Also a late giver is billionaire William Louis-Dreyfus, father of the actress Julia Louis-Dreyfus. He gave a check for $5,000.

Campaign spokesman Zac Petkanas said the money will go for anticipated expenses and advertising buys.

Republican Greg Abbott’s campaign, which in the course of the campaign has received dozens of checks in excess of $50,000, in the last week of the campaign has thus far reported only one large contribution – $40,000 from Dallas textile manufacturer Arun Agarwal.

In all, as my colleague Wayne Slater reports here , spending by the two contenders in the governor’s race could reach $90 million.

In a fiercely contested fundraising effort, Republican Greg Abbott goes into the final days of the governor’s race with $13 million in the bank. Democrat Wendy Davis reports about $1 million on hand. Both sides have spent millions on TV commercials and campaign travel — and the figures thus far suggest the collective cost of running for governor could top $90 million.

Wayne Slater

Wendy Davis looks to the future with $1 million on hand for the campaign's final days

New finance reports show that Davis actually raised more money than Abbott in the last four weeks, but Abbott started with the race with much more in the bank to build on. Abbott raised about $4.2 million in the last four weeks. Davis raised about $5.1 million – a combination of her governor’s account and a coordinated account with the group Battleground Texas.

Basically, the bottom-line figures reflect the pre-purchased TV time for commercials that both sides will run through the November 4 general election. That said, the spending has left Davis and Abbott with very different bottom lines.

Her own governor’s account has about $550,000, according to her campaign. Add to that another $400,000 in the joint-Victory Committee account and that leaves Davis on her own with just over $1 million.

Greg Abbott goes into final days with $13 million in the bank

In contrast, Abbott’s $13 million on hand suggests that if he’s elected governor, he would go into office with a healthy political account to build on for any future race. As Christy Hoppe reported yesterday, Abbott raised $4.2 million in the last four weeks, and has been spent heavily – spending down to $13 million a campaign treasury that was $30 million just four weeks ago.

Davis’ contributions include $210,000 from Houston investor Lillie Robertson, $150,000 from Dallas arts patron Marguerite Hoffman, $125,000 from Houston trial lawyer Steve Mostyn and $100,000 from the Beaumont law firm Provost Umphrey. Her out-of-state contributions include $100,000 from the SEIU labor union in Washington and $80,000 from Wendy Schmidt of Palo Alto, Calif., a philanthropist and wife of the Google executive director. She received more than $900,000 as in-kind contribution work from Battleground Texas, the Texas Organizing Project and Planned Parenthood.

Abbott has consistently led Davis in the polls. Abbott advisers are confident he will win — along with the rest of the GOP slate of candidates running for statewide office. Battleground Texas, a group formed by Obama campaign operatives with the promise of turning red-state Texas blue, has worked for more than a year to identify and motivate Democratic voters in a state that hasn’t elected a Democrat statewide since 1994. It’s not clear how effective the effort has been. Early voting in-person turnout in some counties Democrats need — including Harris, Dallas — is down from four years ago.